OT: Friday Afternoon "Whatcha Doing?" Open Posbang Thread

Its that time again, time for the weekly "Whatcha Doing" open thread. Let us all know what you're up to this afternoon and this weekend. Anything exciting going on out there?

Me, I'm actually getting some real work done today, earning my below-market-value salary. That and trying to buy a new car because we've outgrown our old one.

I love negotiating with car dealerships but I feel bad for the salespeople because they clearly have absolutely no say in the sale/purchase. Everything goes up the ladder through the sales manager and the salesperson has to deal with all the upsetment when I hear their bullsh-t counteroffer price. Buying a new car is one of the most ridiculous processes. Just give me a price that you cannot go below and I'll take it. Stop trying to outsmart me because I negotiate for a f-ing living.

Anyone purchased a new Honda Pilot recently? If so, what did you pay for it?

How are you both affiliated with Michigan and the other respective schools? I go to Florida for grad school, but my allegiance stays with the undergrad. That's not to say I don't partake in college football Saturdays in Gainesville...

UVA is my undergrad. I have no affiliation per se with U-M except that my dad raised me as a U-M fan from way small times. Been watching Michigan football since I was five or so and it's as ingrained as any of the other local teams.

And proud of it. Why not? I even had "It's great to be a Wal-Mart Wolverine" in my sig until Darius Morris told some Sparty hoopster where to go. I did get into Michigan during my undergrad round of applications, but I knew where I absolutely wanted to go to school within 10 minutes of arriving in Charlottesville. So like every good Sparty, I chose not to go to Michigan. U-M returned the favor when I applied for grad school, so I guess we're even.

Good stuff! Charlottesville is definitely a beautiful campus and has a similar feel to Ann Arbor. We played in the annual law school softball tournament a few times and had a few interesting experiences with the undergrad co-eds there. Good times.

Yeah I understand ... I'm at Wisconsin working towards a PhD, so I get to soak up the atmosphere & enjoy it when the Badgers do well, but it sure doesn't bother me when they lose. I went to a small college for undergrad, but my career really got started at Michigan where I worked as a lab tech in MCDB for a year & a half. I don't feel too Wal Mart-ish about it because my family history is absolutely packed with Michigan degrees & employment, including everyone in my immediate family & going back through the generations.

Hike and caught my first rainbow trout this morning. Now it's time hit the vaporizer, get ready to head out of town and possibly go see "The Dictator" this afternoon. After that, I will continue to celebrate American Craft beer week.

I will describe my work from left to right - there is a stack of Continuous Improvement items which I need to update and send downtown, then a pile of service requests from which I need to generate some work orders. Moving to the dual-screen Dell computer, on one screen there is a process flow in Visio, and then on the other screen is MGoBlog. Beyond that, there is a phone with no messages on it (thankfully), and a stack of things I did in fact do this morning, not the least which would be yearly evaluations.

I don't think there are all that many lawyers. Unfortunately, all the schooling and learning we go through basically teaches us to have opinions and counter-arguments about everything and it takes all we have not to comment on every single thing.

Start hitting the bottle. It will help with the slow, sinking feeling you will have afterwards. Doesn't matter if you get a 28 (first attempt) or a 33 (second attempt). You will always feel like you did sh*tty.

It's definitely possible to get a 45, you just have to be absolutely perfect. It's for all intents and purposes impossible. However, you can still get about 2 questions wrong on a section and still get a 14 on a section, and 3-5 wrong and still be in the running for a 13. However, it's really hard to put it all together and get a 39+ especially under the intense conditions of the actual test, although I've met one guy who has got a 42 on his MCAT (he was teaching a review course, which makes sense). As for getting a 45, I'm fairly certain it's theoretically possible but practically impossible.

Brutal. The first time I ever responded to interrogatories is a funny story:

There were three related cases pending and the plaintiff issued a set of interrogatories in each of them. Unbeknownst to me (because I didn't read each closely), each had different questions in different orders. So I did one and then reproduced the same thing for each of the others. In other words, I properly responded to one but not the other two. I had no idea I messed up until the a--hole lawyer on the other side brought it up at the hearing trying to blast me in front of the judge. Funny thing is, the judge acted like she didn't even hear him and proceeded to rule in my favor. Hahaha.

I have yet (in my admittedly short career) to see a judge respond favorably to a would-be "gotcha" moment like that...I think that non-lawyers might be surprised by how far you can get by being professional, straightforward, and even friendly in our profession.

UPDATE: the roommate put the cats in the car and was just going to drive around until I texted him that they were done. I just got a text that his cat shit all over the front seat and rolled around in it.

Just chugging along on my intern project. Sorting through a spreadsheet that contains purchase orders apparently all the way back to the cranks for the Model T and filtering useless data for the individual people that I need stuff from. It's like a real-world posbang. I do something to make it easier to do what I asked you to do and in return I get something I can use.

Going to see The Avengers tonight with the wife. Taking my daughter hiking tomorrow morning and hanging out with friends in Athens (no, not that Athens) in the afternoon. Should be a beautiful weekend. Everybody have a great one.

Haha well it's definitely not happening, that was a joke. Speaking of Hocking Hills though, my wife and I are thinking about getting a cabin there for a weekend sometime late summer/early fall. I hear it's beautiful there.

I think so, but I live here so I'm partial. There are several different state parks, some good b&b's, Logan (where I live) isn't much to write home about but Athens is half an hour away. If you are a motorcyclist, the area is one of the best anywhere to enjoy some backroad touring. I would not recommend a canoe trip or anything else on the Hocking River unless you enjoy pushing a canoe over sand bars with your paddle. Hocking Hills Canopy Tours is a really well run zip line adventure. I'm pretty sure the risk of flesh eating bacteria is minimal. Nelsonville has a somewhat revitalized downtown with local art galleries, plus the movie Mischief was filmed there. (I know, you're thinking wtf is Mischief? Movie, really bad. Kelly Preston, really nice. My high school was also used in the film). Anyway, I'd say overall it's worth the trip. My friends stay here every couple of years to celebrate their anniversary.

Heading to visit the GF tonight, so that should make for a good weekend. As is typical, I'm doing paperwork in the office today.

Re: Car buying - Do your research. If you're thinking about the Pilot definitely drive the GM twins, the GMC Acadia and the Chevy Traverse. Made in Lansing, MI.

In general, this site has the best reviews I've seen and is a crucial tool when car shopping: http://buyersguide.caranddriver.com/ I have no affiliation with C&D, but they're the best site IMO for car info.

First of all let me go on record as saying buying a new car is the bigeest mistake people can make. When you drive that car off the lot it depreciates in value that very instant and depending on the price you paid that 1 Km you just drove to get out of the lot could cost you over $10,000.00.

The way to go IMHE is to buy a very new used car (1 year old), that way someone else took the hit and you can still get much of what you paid out of it if you decide to trade up in a couple of years time.

As for the Pilot, my brother bought one a couple of years ago that had about every bell and whistle they offer and paid 59,000.00 Canadian. He sold it last year to buy a Toyota Sequoia and got 38,000.00. He lost 21,000.00 in a little over a year, and it was in good shape.

I have never owned a pilot, but have driven one and a few of the toyota SUV's but for my money the best vehicle I have owned is a Chevrolet Suburban. It costs more than a pilot but is much more vehicle as well. You can get a very nice almost new one for a decent price all over the US for between 25000.00 and 35000.00 (I bought my most recent one in Houston). That is what I would suggest, especially if you have a growing family, you can't beat the space it provides and it was as good on gas as my brothers Pilot when he had it.

As for what I am doing, getting ready to hit the golf course and then heading to the cottage for a week of vacation with the wife and kids. Getting the boat in the water and doing some fishing will be a welcome break from the daily grind.

It depends on the car. Yes, you lose lots the second it becomes "used" but depending on how long you want to keep the car, getting it new with warranty, new components, etc. might be worth it. Plus, my car was worth more than I owed on it 1 year into a 5 year loan.

Thanks for the advice! I almost purchased a used 2011 one with 17k miles on it but some a--hole beat me to it. I can't find any others in the nearby area with the stuff we want. I hear you about the Suburban. Unfortunately that beast will not fit in our garage (or not well enough that I trust my wife to park it there!). We've always driven Hondas (I know, we suck) and they've always treated us well so we're partial to that brand but I'm always to look at other brands. The wife, however, is not as open to it.

Unless the only reason you're still there is brand loyalty. Is it still the best car/brand for your needs? Why have you been honda buyers? Do those reasons still apply? You never want to buy a car without comparisons, and who knows, the Pilot might be best for you. But definitely test drive/look at something else as well. If you never know what else is out there, you'll never know if there's a better car out there for you.

I must say I've never bought that argument. Assembly being only the final piece of the car. I think folks tend to overrate the physical location of the plant. You buy a Honda or Toyota, ultimately the cash is going to Japan.

it's really not that simple anymore. auto manufacturing is really global. I have yet to find a good site that breaks down what dollars go where, but for example the Buick Regal. that's a gm car designed and built in germany. where do those dollars go? is that "better" than a car designed in germany, built in the us by a german company? like the new vw passat? I really don't know the answer.

True. Everyone employs people all over and (as I'm learning in this internship) purchases third-party services and has operations in places all over. Literally all over. However, I look at it like this. If one of the Big 3 went under, regardless of what they spend in other countries, it would not be Germany's or Japan's economy that suffers. And if Honda went under, it would not be Detroit's economy that suffers.

I can't find a number for GM (probably much, much bigger) but to say it wouldn't affect us if they went under is an understatement.

Keep in mind I work for an auto supplier in Illinois and 2 of the 3 clients I deal with are 2 of the big 3. All 3 are making great vehicles right now, and any buyer who doesn't think they're quality is wrong. I'm just saying that it's not as simple as it was 30 years ago.

Not saying it wouldn't affect us. In fact if for some cataclysmic reason Toyota disappeared overnight, the short-term would be bad news for the whole industry. It's too interconnected not to have a major ripple effect. But those 365,000 jobs are spread around the country. Everyone would feel it a little bit. If it were a Big 3 automaker cataclysmically going under instead, there would be the same type of effect everywhere they employ people, but it would be a nuclear disaster for Detroit and the region. So - and this is where my own biased opinion comes in - I have a lot more loyalty to the jobs and economy and state of being of Detroit than I do to a Toyota plant in California or a Honda engineering facility in Indiana.

I have had people give me funny looks when I explain this attitude, but they start to get it when I ask if they've ever been to Atlanta and tried to order a Pepsi.

And it's a good one. I'm in favor of buying locally/supporting the Big 3/whatever. If there is a site out there that puts all of this together (I know there was a "made in America" rating for cars a few years ago, but that was mostly manufacturing, not whole industry) I'd love to see it

Hiking at 5 today followed by going out to dinner then the bars. Denver Zoo tomorrow and Watercourse for dinner. Sunday i'm spending the day in Rocky Mountain National Park. My life is better than your vacation.

Oh man, Rocky Mountain National Park is tremendous. My sister lives out there in the foothills west of Denver and got married up in Estes Park. It is so beautiful there. I did a little fly fishing while we were there and the streams were cleaner than my drinking water. Woke up one morning with a heard of Elk outside our cabin. Pretty darn cool.

Reading articles on the new series "Before Watchmen" coming out and comtemplating if I will read them. Moore wanted nothing to do with them, and I totally agree. But I am a sucker for origin/prequel stories, so my curiousity might get the better of me.

Also going to start reading "The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro" by Joe McGinniss when I get home from work tonight.

Office til 4, then celebrating my friend's birthday on the rooftop of the Lynnwood Grill (Raleigh). The rest of the weekend will be wedding planning with my fiancee. Good luck to you all of you doctors-in-the-making.

I took a half-day vacation to drink beer, eat fish (actual fish, perverts), and eat more fish (for the perverts). I have to prep for a friend's bachelor party in Columbus tomorrow, can't wait to reasonably discuss why Michigan is better than Ohio to the locals.

I may be there Sunday. Thinking about bringing my Michigan flag (The one designed after the American flag) and wearing it like a cape! Ill bring pepper spray for anyone that wants to give me too much shit about it.

I taught both my kids to do that at about one. Now they're three and five and do it all the time. It's awesome, but I believe in taking a drink every time someone cheers you, so it's a quick way to finish a few beers. I bet they're just thinking, "wanna see daddy get tanked?"

a sick 10 month old, while nursing a upper respiratory infection of my own. I think the fever has me hallucinating. And of course, I am supposed to be escaping to my lakeside retreat tomorrow for some debauchery with old friends. Im hoping the TheraFlu/DayQuil speedball I've mixed up does the job

I'm there! After 12:30. I'm actually getting better. I've been rocking the M60 recently, going prone with the bipod and blasting away. I'm sure I've pissed off a sh-tload of opponents by camping but f- it. Its the only way I can level up and get more unlocks for my weapons. I need all the help I can get and I realized that I'll never be good at the run-and-gun.

Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to level up. And eventually, after doing that enough, you'll be able to transition to a battle rifle or carbine and surprise yourself with your ability to pwn n0obs. I definitely went through a phase where I would just rail people with those LMGs.

I've also been having fun on Nashahr Canals in team deathmatch sniping other snipers. I hang out by the railroad tracks and look for snipers up in the crane or on the other side in the containers. I drive my MAV around and spot them and try to run into them if they are prone, just for fun.

It's for work, and only for a week (compared to the 3 months I spent living there last year for work). But at least that means I don't have to pay for anything. Plus it's only a 45-minute train ride to downtown Stockholm.

How the hell did Hammond get in there? I guess he would be useful for reprising his calls of various Irish-crushing plays like Denard's 87-yard gallop in 2010. "Here is Denard... Robinson... Off to the races..."

A major tip is to go on to the websites of all the places you are considering buynig the car (i.e. all Honda dealerships within 50 miles), and filling out their online form asking for an exact quote for the vehicle (including all specifications and add-ons). Their internet sales guy will usually email you back within a day, and they virtually always give you their lowest price (plus a small mark-up for profit). They know that you are doing this with multiple dealerships, and they don't have the opportunity to make you sit in their small cubicle and negotiate with them -- they know they have to make you a good offer upfront. Then you print those emails out, and you use the lowest one as the starting point for negotiations at the dealer.

Don't believe the lies! Sure, you'll get answers... then you'll try to write them up, but the reviewers will ask you to confirm those answers in three different ways that are either technically nearly impossible, or financially prohibitive, or both. But you'll do it, because you're so close. Or, you'll submit to that other journal based in India, and get published! Phew, it's over, right? nope, now it's time to write grants for the next project... research research research....

It's my brother's birthday so we're going out to dinner with the fam and his new gf, who is a total princess. Her dog has its own closet (for its shoe collection, of course) and her dad bought her her own condo in downtown Royal Oak (she's 23). She also declared that "Coach is for poor people" and "poor people are dirty", so there's that.

lol! He texted me that for his birthday, she made him get a facial/massage. He's never had either. I think she gets them all the time so she thought he'd enjoy them too? Who knows. I work in advocacy for the underserved so I'm afraid if she says something like "poor people are dirty" in front of me I'll go off. This should be interesting. :)

Well if your bro is with her I assume she is a knockout or has a trick pelvis. Or is really free with her money, in which case I've totally had an eye on the Coach Classic Madison leather satchel in lime. You could get two. Just sayin'

She's gorgeous--she's half egyptian so super dark and exotic looking--but dude HER DOG HAS A CLOSET. Also she told my brother that if they get married, she wants their house to be designed after the Barbie dream house (I wish I was making that up) which prompted me to begin referring to her as Dr. Barbie. (She and my brother are both medical school students). One time she bought this bright pink CAPS LOCK FLORAL print dress and bought him the matching tie--with the same nauseating CAPS LOCK FLORAL bright pink print. For a special occasion, you wonder? No, no; "just in case". PS when I asked him what kind of doctor she wants to be he answered, I kid you not, "She wants to do a specialty where she can wear heels everyday."

Well once I get done with work I get to work on a 20 ton per day ice machine for the rest of the night. By the time I'm done I'll be sure to report to the "What are you drinking tonight" thread that will be posted later and inform everyone on how well the job went. Hard liquor will be a rough day, while beer will be a not-so-bad kind of day.

Okay, I'm a posbang thread virgin, but here goes -- I'm flying up to Cleveland this weekend for my sister's graduation. I know it's Ohio, but I'm sort of looking forward to escaping Florida for a few days... I love springtime/early summer in the Midwest (also, I love Cleveland).

Trying to figure out why the hell DTE decided to cut the power to my Apt. without giving any sort of notice. I had an auto payment set up but they claim to have no active services for my account. It doesnt help that their online acount management services are down for the day. My landlord is out of town for a long weekend and cant be bothered apparently so I have no options there. Epic failure of all parties involved.

This one is probably not best solved on MGoBlog - if you would like, e-mail me the address at [email protected] and I can perhaps do some investigating for you. I am not in the Customer Service group per se (Planning & Design group here), but I could probably kick some information in the right direction, if nothing else.

To everyone: I honestly don't mind revealing my work e-mail. I am only too happy to try and help MGoBloggers in the DTE (specifically Detroit Edison side, in my case) service area.

The one thing I am curious about - is this a multi-tenant building? If so, I wonder if they cut the service to the building (which would mean everybody should be out), or was it specifically to your apartment. If your metering is on the outside, your meter (the meter number should be on the bill somewhere - not the same as the account number) will either be removed (with a plastic cover over the socket) or tilted.

I appreciate the offer to help. Without boring you with too much detail/my desire for privacy, it ended up being a miscommunication between my landlord, DTE and I. My landlord finally returned my call in the middle of my work shift tonight and had answers that made sense(though he still is an idiot). I anticipate a long day tomorrow trying to fix it but at least I know the problem. My midafternoon rage has subsided.

To answer your query it is a converted house that was split into two appartments and only my power was cut. Again a mix up that I can blame mostly on my landlord.

Wanting to play Diablo 3, but it's so damn nice outside, I'd feel like too much of a hermit. Beer and sunshine somehwere sounds more like it (till later this evening when demons will be hunted and killed into the wee early morning hours).

Its a beautiful day here in middle Georgia and I have to work. As usual it is a pretty boring day on the edge of the county. I guess the bright side of that is the citizens of the area are having wonderful days.

I've read every post in this thread. How sad is that? The next 30 minutes can't go by fast enough...

Edit: Also, what do you think Cabby and Prince are doing in this GIF? Specifically, the move right before they hug.

I found this over on Notgraphs (the humorous side of Fangraphs) and they had a pretty funny summary:

I see six distinctive steps. I just don’t know what two of them are:
1. Five, down low.
2. Backhand five, also down low. Convenient, since their hands are already down there.
3. Lean back, hands in the air, feign surprise; like when you run into an old friend, or are the recipient of some good news.
4. ?
5. ?
6. Forty-four million dollar hug.

At first, I thought steps four and five had something to do with cooking. Salt and pepper? I don’t know, I was hungry. Then, for some reason, I thought about drugs. But, again, I’m not sure. You tell me: What the hell are they doing?

I can't really figure out 4 and 5. My thought was salt and pepper, too, but that seems too unoriginal.